Uddhav meets 'Renaissance Man' Pawar, NCP says game on

Mumbai: The new-found bonhomie between the NCP and Shiv Sena was on display on Sunday after Uddhav Thackeray met Sharad Pawar at a Mumbai luxury hotel where NCP MLAs were lodged amid the high ongoing political drama in Maharashtra.

Incidentally, NCP spokesperson Clyde Crasto dubbed Pawar, the 20-year-old party’s founder, as ‘Renaissance Man’, even as Thackeray met the NCP chief at the suburban hotel bearing the same name.

“Hey #BJP, Game on. Our ‘Renaissance Man’ v/s your modern day so-called ‘#Chanakya’. Bring it on,” Crasto tweeted.

Earlier in the day, NCP leader and Maharashtra deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar assured Prime Minister Narendra Modi that he would work hard for people of the state.

Responding to Ajit Pawar’s tweet, Crasto tweeted, “Dear Ajit Dada, Nice to see you reply to our Hon. PM’s good wishes but just want to remind you that you are being wished because you left the hands of the Man who held your hand & taught you how to walk in your personal & political life. Wishing you the best for the future.”

The Sena-NCP bonhomie was also seen after Shiv Sena leaders Eknath Shinde and Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray’s Man Friday Milind Narvekar on Saturday caught Sanjay Bansod, NCP MLA from Udgir, who was set to fly out of Mumbai.

There was speculation that he was on his way to Delhi. The buzz on social media was Bansod was missing.

Shinde and Narvekar had then taken Bansod to the Y B Chavan centre in south Mumbai where an NCP meet was underway.

In a stunning turn of events in Maharashtra, BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis on Saturday returned as Chief Minister propped up by Ajit Pawar, who was made his deputy, just hours after the new alliance of Shiv Sena, the NCP and the Congress reached a consensus that Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray will be their chief ministerial candidate.

The Shiv Sena approached the Supreme Court against the “arbitrary and malafide actions/decisions” of Maharashtra governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari of swearing in Fadnavis.

Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar were sworn in by Koshyari at 8 am at a hush hush ceremony here after dramatic midnight developments, leading to the lifting of the President’s rule in Maharashtra.